Good news on Friday, March 16, the Federal Government announced transportation allocations for Ontario. London's share is $204-million and the best news, it is not allocated for the flawed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan being fronted by City Hall.

Peter Fragiskatos, Member of Parliament, London North Centre, made it clear, very clear these funds will not be distributed without fully vetted business plans and hefty due diligence in Ottawa. This process takes time, lots of time, so there is little to no chance BRT will be reviewed in Ottawa before the provincial and municipal elections.

Without getting into the weeds on details, the province has not completed its environmental assessment, so the earlier "announcement" about provincial funding is raw politics that is not supported by provincial environmental laws.

London can still present an alternative to BRT that makes sense and provides real service across the entire city, for everyone and all modes of transportation. This is far from over.

To do:

1. Citizens of London, keep the pressure on London council members, keep the pressure on provincial candidates and members. Write, call and email elected representatives who represent you.

http://lfpress.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor-march-10

No hiding allowed

The suggestion to have all candidates declare their position on the bus rapid transit is exactly what Candidates Against BRT is going to accomplish when the candidates declare themselves.

CAB will determine the candidates’ position and advertise it immediately prior to the Oct. 22 London election. This will eliminate the urge of the candidate to skirt around the issue.

Walt Lonc

London

Fix BRT flaws

I have reviewed the latest bus rapid transit presentations and attended three BRT public meetings. London drivers need to understand there has been almost zero focus from the BRT team and City of London transportation director Edward Saldo on the impact of these system changes for London drivers.

Unaddressed scenarios for drivers on sections where there will be only two vehicle lanes include delays from garbage and recycling trucks, landscaping companies unloading equipment, delivery services, Uber and taxi services doing curbside pickups and drop-offs, and commercial delivery trucks.

Does the City of London expect to serve breakfast or lunch to drivers to mitigate these expected blockages, or get down to some serious concept-design work to resolve this flaw to gain my support as a driver?

Chris Butler

London

Tiny changes first

Why is London is trying to go from the current system straight to BRT? How come cheaper minor changes to the current bus system, which could create major benefits, are not being looked into?

Try spreading the stops out a bit so the buses don’t stop as often. BRT will make riders have to walk farther anyway.

Try putting in cutouts at all bus stops so that buses are off the road while dropping off and picking up. Traffic can then continue unimpeded.

If all traffic is moving quicker this will include the buses. BRT will be permanently removing whole lanes for London traffic that will lead to bottlenecks and slowdowns.

James Norton

London

U-turn chaos

This flawed BRT plan keeps slowly revealing strange and dangerous concepts that the city planners want us to just leave to them because they know best .

I have driven in London for 40 years and in the past approximate five years random and impromptu U turns in traffic have grown increasingly common. Now the city hall bus planners are endorsing that driving practice.

It’s chaotic and unsafe and should never be encouraged, unless perhaps the full traffic pattern was originally planned to accommodate that type of flow as I have seen in Michigan and Australia.

But London’s traffic flow was never created for that, neither by BRT or drivers who might be commanded by their GPS.

What crazy, expensive and sadly slim results this BRT scheme is destined to create if it gets past the upcoming election.